Everton 2 - 0 Sunderland

February has been an awful month for Steve Bruce and his Sunderland team, picking up zero points out of a possible 12.

Bruce made a few changes after his side lost to Spurs with Mignolet, Ferdinand moving to right back in place of Onouha, and Elmohamady replacing the injured Steed Malbranque.

Gordon made an appearance on the bench to make us feel he was not injured but dropped after a poor few games between the sticks.

Everton done what they have done in the last 14 attempts and make life very difficult from the start.

The out-of-form Jermaine Beckford typically scored a first half brace after some shocking defending.

Steve Bruce made sure his defence trained hard at set pieces and being solid but the two goals could have been prevented. Beckford was allowed space to run at Mignolet and his tame shot deflected off Bramble to give Everton the best of starts.

Sunderland came back strongly after the goal with Sessegnon being denied by a brilliant save from Tim Howard who palmed the ball on to the crossbar and away to safety.

However, this was the best moment of play from Sunderland as Everton came forward and scored the crucial second goal.

John Mensah could not maintain Arteta and dove in for no reason as the Spaniard pulled it back for Beckford's second and century of league goals.

Sunderland made some changes in the second half with Ryan Noble coming on and impressing in his short period of being on the pitch.

It only gets harder for Bruce as his team head to Arsenal next weekend with no confidence and a shaky defence.

Comments

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It's as bad as I've seen anyone come to Goodison and play. Second half you'd of expect Sunderland to come out and at us, but whatever team talk Bruce gave it didn't exactly fire them up. That stroll second half was ideal for us with an important game on Tuesday.